Six months had passed since I came to live in this house.
Old Man hardly ever came home, so it had been just Suika and me living together all this time.
“Fwoo… fwoo…”
In front of me sat a bowl of warm, mushy rice porridge. I had started on solid food.
“Yoshito-sama, h-here you go…”
Suika is holding a spoon, but her hand is trembling so badly from nerves that she could easily have poked me right in the eye if I wasn’t careful. I waited for the right moment, then opened my mouth and happily took a bite.
“Yaa—(delicious!) Yayayaa—(This is soooooo good!)”
Rice. The soul food of Japan. After having nothing but bread in another world, finally tasting rice again was deeply moving. I couldn’t help breaking into a huge smile.
“～～～～!”
Suika practically writhed with delight. Her cat ears and tail were flapping wildly.
After the meal, I decided it was finally time to put my long-standing plan into action. Suika is washing dishes in the kitchen, so she couldn’t see much of what ishappening in the living room.
Now is my chance.
Uh-, sorry for the sudden change of subject, but you see, there is a certain device in my house. A round thing that automatically went around cleaning the floor.
A robot vacuum.
You think I should call it a “Roomba” instead?
That’s a trademarked name and all that. You know what I mean.
“Daa-uuu! (Today, I, will become…) daa—Daaa! (the Roomba Rider!)”
Everyone has wondered about it at least once, “Wouldn’t it be fun to ride a Roomba?”
And as a baby, I am small and light. It should be fine.
Time to show off the riding skills I’d honed in another world!
“Awababa da-dau-dau! (Awaken from thy seal!) Awabababa— (Storm-wielding mechanical beast! Roomba!)”
After an entirely pointless incantation, I switched it on. Then I climbed aboard.
The Roomba let out a low, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr sound.
Oho.
This… This is freaking awesome!
It looked like I was about to crash straight into the wall—but at the last second, I made it turn. Then, just when it seemed to come to a complete stop, it suddenly spun around three times.
The perfect amount of danger. This is exhilarating. It’s pretty fast going in a straight line, too.
Right now, the Roomba and I had become one. Not “one man and one horse” but “one man and one Roomba!”
Okay, okay, that sounded terrible. Sorry for that.
“Y-Yoshito-sama?”
Oops. I’d gotten so absorbed in riding the Roomba that I’d completely forgotten about Suika.
I figured she’s probably going to scold me.
Instead—
“Please wait here a moment.”
She hurried upstairs with surprisingly light footsteps, then returned carrying a handheld video camera.
“Yoshito-sama, please look this way! And give me a smile!”
This woman is such a doting mother!?
“Kyah, kyah!”
Well, she worked so hard taking care of me every day. I supposed I could indulge her once in a while.
I gave Suika a smile about thirty percent bigger than my usual one. And so, our bizarre little photo shoot continued.
When suddenly—
“What on earth are you two doing…?”
Old Man had come home, wearing a thoroughly exasperated expression.
Damn it. Talk about ruining the fun.
I climbed off the Roomba and grabbed the baby bottle sitting on the table.
“Y-Y-Yoshito, calm down. Calm down, okay?”
Old Man had gone deathly pale.
Apparently, the trauma of “Rocket Punch” had come rushing back to him.
“I’m your papa. I’m not the enemy. Now, please put the baby bottle down.”
“…Naoki-sama, what are you doing, cowering before your own son?”
Suika sighed. Her expression had become as sharp and composed as ever, completely different from the doting woman who had been playing with me moments ago.
Still, I noticed her eyes kept darting toward the Roomba.
And then, the incident happened the following day.
“Yoshito-sama, it’s time for your nap.”
It was around two in the afternoon, I think, when Suika suddenly said that. She picked me up and carried me upstairs to my room.
“Then, if you’ll excuse me…”
After making sure I was asleep, Suika quietly slipped out.
Actually… I was only pretending to be asleep…
I slowly sat up. Something about Suika had seemed unusually urgent.
What could possibly be going on?
I was curious. Very curious.
The secret of the cat-eared beauty in the afternoon. When I try to put it this way, it’s extremely erotic.
By the way, Suika, what is Nekomata? I wonder if they have a heat cycle like cats do.
Gulp. Hey, let’s take a look at the situation below, I thought.
Suika-san, carelessly, didn’t put a fence around the crib. Moreover, the door to the room was not closed properly. It was easy to get out.
“What the hell is going on?”
With my heart full of pink anticipation, I descended with extreme caution. As I neared the first floor, a vibrating sound echoed from the other side of the living room door. I wonder if this is a vibrating adult Nantoyara.
What’s more, I sometimes hear high-pitched voices like “Nya” and “Kya.”
This…isn’t there a lewd thing going on just a door away?
This is a situation where a gentleman should quietly leave. However, I think it’s a common instinct among boys to be curious about the secrets of beautiful ladies.
I thought it would be safe to peek at it for a little while.
I made my way downstairs. Through the half-open living room door, I quietly peeked inside.
And there I saw—
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
“Nyaa♪ Nyaaah♪”
A cat is happily riding the Roomba and singing to herself. She had the biggest smile on her face. Her tail was black, and split into two. If I remembered correctly, the “mata” in nekomata referred to the tail splitting in two.
So…is that Suika?
This is exactly the sort of situation where [Appraisal] came in handy.
“……”
Yep. That’s Suika all right. Apparently, she’s using a skill called [Cat Transformation].
Had she really put me down for a nap just so she could play around on the Roomba?
“Nya?!”
Ah. Our eyes met.
“Nyaa… Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!?”
Poof.
Just as her body was enveloped in a cloud of smoke, the [Cat Transformation] wore off, and she returned to her human form. She was stark naked. The contrast between her rounded, white buttocks and the tail extending from them was dazzling.
“Uuh… I never expected you to come down from the second floor like that.”
The mental shock must have been immense. After getting dressed, Suika-san simply collapsed onto the sofa and fell asleep.
“My head is spinning…”
Well, Roomba does spin around like crazy, after all. Riding it for that long is bound to throw off one’s sense of balance.
“I apologize, Yoshito-sama. I will make sure to prepare dinner properly, so please let me rest for a while.”
By all means, go right ahead. If anything, I should be thanking you for always taking care of me. We can manage without a meal or two, so please sleep without worry.
“Zzz… shoo…zz”
Before long, Suika began to breathe softly in her sleep.
Some time passed, and evening arrived.
“Ugh… ah… ngh…”
Suddenly, Suika began tossing and turning in her sleep.
“Guh… ah, ahh…”
Cold sweat had formed on her forehead, and she struggled for breath as though she were suffocating.
“S-Suika-san! Suika-san!”
It was no use. No matter how much I shook her, she wouldn’t wake up.
If anything—
“Daa… dadadada? (What the heck is going on…?)”
A black, mist-like substance was clinging to her body. Every time it writhed, Suika twisted in agony. I felt like I’d seen something similar in the other world. A technique that drained its target’s life force and eventually killed them—
A curse.
I had no idea who is doing this to her. But that was less important right now.
I had to save Suika.
I took a deep breath. I focused my mind and activated the magical power flowing throughout my body. Compared to six months ago, my reserves had grown considerably.
If this was all there was to the curse…
I should be able to dispel it.
“《Saintly Art》・《Purifying Stream of Exorcism》(The sight of woman gasping in pained ecstasy as the blessing purges the evil—honestly, —I think that’s actually pretty erotic.)”
Oh, don’t mind my thoughts.
Space shimmered above Suika-san’s head, and rain began to fall from the distortion, accompanied by a brilliant radiance. Each droplet acted as a potent remedy against the curse. The black mist shrank rapidly before my eyes. It vanished completely in less than ten seconds.
Case closed.
I used the 《Purifying Stream of Exorcism》 out of habit, forgetting that we were indoors. The area—sofa included—was now soaking wet.
“Yoshito-sama…?”
Suika stirred and opened her eyes. Her rain-drenched blouse clung to her skin, revealing the faint outline of her underwear beneath. Today, it was blue lace.
That was the last thing I remembered before losing consciousness.
I had run out of magical energy.
That night, the Old Man came home—a rare occurrence. It seemed Suika-san had called him to report the incident with the curse. The two of them talked late into the night, while I—cradled against Suika’s bosom—pretended to be asleep while secretly straining to overhear their conversation.
According to their conversation:
* A year ago, Old Man and Suika had fought a particularly nasty curse user.
* They had driven him right to the brink of defeat, but the curse user managed to escape.
* He may have placed the curse on Suika as an act of revenge.
* Her riding around on the Roomba had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was just a coincidence.
But the real issue came next.
“Even as a mere infant, Yoshito-sama managed to dispel a curse of such high rank.”
Such a high rank? That thing?
Back in the other world, it would barely qualify as middle-of-the-road. Was there really that much of a gap in magical techniques between worlds?
“With the right upbringing, he might become an exorcist whose name goes down in history. Perhaps it would be best if he were raised in our village after all—”
“I’m sorry, but that won’t be happening.”
Old Man cut her off immediately.
“What happened to you today is a perfect example. Our line of work is nothing but killing and being killed, and getting dragged into one miserable mess after another. As his father, I can’t possibly send my child down that path.”
“But—”
“I won’t accept any arguments on this matter. Yoshito will be entrusted to our relatives soon. I originally intended to raise him here until he was two or three, but I don’t want him getting caught up in the baggage and grudges we’ve accumulated.”
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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